How important is your connection with the band for whom you\u2019re producing artwork?<\/strong><\/p>\nTaking creative direction from most musicians can quickly turn into a delicate exercise in diplomacy. Not so with Rush. These guys know early on where they are going with both the music and the theme.<\/p>\n
Is the music ever the starting point for the art?<\/strong><\/p>\nRarely. It\u2019s the title or theme I prefer to respond to. Signals<\/em> or Permanent Waves<\/em> are prime examples of how we would indulge in visual reactions to the title.<\/p>\nWhat originally inspired the Starman logo?<\/strong><\/p>\nIts genesis was derived from the 2112<\/em> story. The man is the hero. That he is nude is a nod to a classic tradition in art and sculpture. The red star is the evil emblem of the Federation, which was Neil\u2019s symbol for the controlling, intolerant governing federation in 2112.<\/p>\nYou must be amazed by how it\u2019s endured?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t until I attended their live Massey Hall shows in Toronto that I met this thing called merchandising! The Starman was everywhere, passing me on jackets and T-shirts, tattoos, Neil\u2019s drum heads.<\/p>\n
Which of your album covers resonates with you most? <\/strong><\/p>\nProbably Power Windows<\/em>, for both artistic and personal reasons. The 11 weeks of painting coincided with the death of my father. I came to discover that work, my work, was my solace.<\/p>\nYour body of work includes well over 100 book covers. Is that a different discipline?<\/strong><\/p>\nBook covers are not unlike album covers. They need to convey the essence of the author\u2019s work. Then there\u2019s \u2018shelf-appeal\u2019 and visibility. Neil\u2019s have been the most gratifying, given my friendship and artistic alliance with the author, and my respect for his writing skills.<\/p>\n
Do you paint to relax?<\/strong><\/p>\nI still plan to isolate that ever-elusive hiatus to do nothing but paint for myself, and hopefully produce enough work for an exhibit. I do love to paint when I can, usually environmental portrait commissions of family, friends, close associates. I love the smell of turps in the morning!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Mercury Hugh Syme created the artwork for Rush\u2019s third album, Caress Of Steel, in 1975. He\u2019s continued working with his fellow Canadians ever since, also producing covers for late drummer Neil Peart\u2019s books, and his other credits […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2083895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[356730,392063,392062,392061],"class_list":["post-2083894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-album-covers","tag-caress-of-steel","tag-dream-theater","tag-hugh-syme"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/I-went-to-a-show-and-met-this-thing-called.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2083896,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083894\/revisions\/2083896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2083895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}